California and Desirée
So, I've been back from California for a couple days now. I got back Tuesday about 5pm, and my friend Jonathon drove me back from DF/W (we were some slow folks .. just enjoying a good talk, a friendly dinner, and the open road/interstate). Desirée did a pretty good job outlining the major happenings of my trip, while leaving a few things open for me to expound on. Let's see what I can do.
This was my first flight. Well, I think I remember once when I was like 2 ... but as you can tell, it's not all that memorable. I was a little nervous. The plane bounced a bit coming out of Dallas (it was a super foggy day, and pretty windy). I heard sounds that made me worry. When we were making our descent, the wings started bending downwards (man, I shouldn't have been on the wing). I had decided earlier that I wasn't going to start screaming until someone else did, too. Miraculously enough, I didn't have to scream, and I made it to LAX in one piece. Desirée picked me up a little after I arrived. It was amazing to see her again, death-flight or no.
The Millan's are extraordinary hosts. They had never met me before (the parents; I knew Ben and Stefan), but they treated me like an old friend. I had my pick of rooms to sleep in, and had my own keys. The fridge was mine for the raiding, although you never got very close to it, because Stella would already be fixing you a plate of something while you were just starting to think "hmm, I may be hungry." After leaving Desirée's place, I immediately took a wrong turn. Instead of calling her, though, I called a remixer friend from online and told him that he could get me back on track, AND we could meet up for a little bit. That was fun ... the guy was real nice. Desirée was a little nervous that I was out late meeting this guy who led me off the main road into what might have been a dark alley that he could kill me in and take my precious piano hands (and leave the rest of me behind). I think I might not have explained my situation to her very well when I called her and told her she could rest easy, cause it obviously didn't work.
So, somewhere between midnight-thirty when I crashed in the building out back of the Millan's place and 5am when I was jarred awake by a strange dream, I noticed that the fan and heater that I had running were now ... not. In fact, nothing was. So, I had to get up and run inside by the light of a flashlight to take a shower. Hmm, power on in here, that's good. Oh, of course not, the power to the bathroom only doesn't work. Yay for a shower by flashlight. So romantic.
Desirée and I went to the oral surgeon, and yadda yadda, she gets in and the receptionist tells me it will only be like 1 1/2 hours tops. Well, that keeps me pretty close by so I just sit at Denny's alone and think to myself "I never want to be this guy." Anyways, I head back a little early, and a couple minutes later, the nurse lets me back to see Desirée. They've got her on a padded bench with a strange white cloth over her. She's lying there totally still with her eyes closed, so I think maybe I'm a little early, but as soon as she hears me pull up a chair she's talking to me. She could have been a mummy: white sheet tight over her body, head raised on a pillow, and an ice pack sticking out from either cheek. She reached for my hand, but can't get to me because of the sheet, and finally wiggles her way out. She's literally wringing my hands the whole time and doesn't even realize it. She starts asking about the music, and where it's coming from, and about a minute later into the conversation says, "Who are you?" Then she started asking over and over if she was dying, and if I would pray for her, and then started crying. I had to fight back tears.
Here's a short list of other interesting things said during this loopy time for Desirée:
- "Where's my tongue? They cut out my tongue!"
- "Am I fat and ugly?" "NO, of course not." "Right now!?!" "..well, maybe just a little."
- "Am I drooling blood?"
- "You're a nice boy."
- "I can't see anything!" "Desirée, you have your eyes closed."
- "How did I get in here?" (At this point, I'm like .. ok, whatever. I ran out and asked the closest nurse, "Hey, random question. She wants to know how she got in there.") "They say that you walked in here and they helped you." "NU-UH!! I DID NOT!"
- "I'm a good girl!" (Yeah, she really did say that to the nurse.)
- "The doctor says you're my boyfriend." (That one made me laugh.)
- *touching her bottom lip thoughtfully* "What is this?"
So, the nurse gave me the lowdown on what to do for the next couple days, even though Desirée would eventually NOT heed these instructions. :) About 20 feet before pulling into her driveway, she did the frantic armtap, and I slammed on the brakes, she opened the door, and there went some gum blood all over the road. We sat around the majority of the day, except to get her prescriptions and some soft cold foods. THE YOGURT STORY INCOMING: Desirée hates this one, but she knows I love telling it, and she seems content to let me share it. The first time eating after the surgery was a small yogurt cup. She got a spoonful of it ready, and then put it up to her mouth, and HALF of it made it to her bottom lip. She couldn't even tell where her mouth was because it was still totally numb. I was going to help her, but she looked like she wanted to take care of it herself. She wiped her mouth, and tried to hide a look of shock when she saw how much yogurt DIDN'T make it inside of her. Still makes me smile.
Friday we went out for haircuts (she had setup the appointments weeks ago for this). I got what I like to call "organized chaos" on my head. The shampoo / head massage was worth the price. Desirée got a killer look and finally got beyond the post-partum depression of losing her teeth the day before. We went to lunch, and Desirée tried so hard to eat something more sustaining than a pudding substance, but eventually had to just nurse her soup. The waitress asked us if everything was ok, and Desirée told her that she had just gotten her teeth out, and the girl was like, "Oh, I'm so sorry! Yeah, I'm going to have to get mine out, too ... and heart surgery." Then she walked off with a smile, with us feeling quite a bit less depressed about our own pathetic little problems.
Desirée cooked for me Friday night, but was unfortunately still unable to really enjoy any food. Meals were taking forever, and I think it frustrated her. I hung out for a while, then she dropped me off at the Millan's, and went back home.
Saturday, Desirée came and picked me up in a stunning red dress that matched my new red tie she bought me. We ate a picnic lunch at Ambassador College, and walked around the grounds. Even after all the years that it had been degrading, it was still just amazing to see. The buildings and the landscape were fantastic. After that, we headed to church, and yes, I was mentioned quite a bit during the service. Everyone notices a piano player for some reason. We ate dinner with the Millan's that evening, and went to a duelling piano bar. It was pretty racy stuff that night, but the musicians were just amazing. They had two pianos, a bass, a regular electric, and drums, and pretty much everyone could go play any instrument. Guess I couldn't work there, being a lame piano-only guy. We also drank mixed drinks out of a bucket with straws. Classy.
Sunday was Venice Beach and Hollywood. Venice Beach was a big deal supposedly because there were a bunch of freaks out there, although Desirée assures me that there weren't as many freaks as usual out there that day. We walked up and down the boardwalk looking at shops, little sideshows, and ... freaks. Short list of things seen at VB:
- A man doing a show involving fire eating and balancing young girls sitting in folding chairs on his chin.
- A man on rollerblades playing an electric guitar down the boardwalk for tips (he must have had an electric pack or a battery somewhere on him.)
- Lots of random guys playing a guitar and singing their blues away.
- A guy with a couple turntables doing some scratching for cash like a lotto ticket. Ha, I'm witty.
- A young couple: him, with a kareoke system by his side, "oooh"ing along with a CD; her, standing close by in her ridiculous clothing just swaying and feeling the feng shui of his lyrical musings. I don't know WHO is giving them money.
- A black man in a thong (speedo? I didn't look long enough to know or care) rolling a metal ball along his arm. I GUESS this was entertainment.
We went to Hollywood from there. I cannot stress this enough. The place is SCUMMY. This is not someplace cool like you'd expect it to be. The only nice places are the high tourist places because they have security and ... well, normal people. We saw some shemale prostitutes on the street, and Desirée is convinced that later when we were walking behind a couple guys that one of them looked back and checked ME out. I don't have gaydar, so I couldn't tell. The stars on the sidewalk were pretty cool, and the Chinese Theater is definitely the highlight of the town. On our way back to our car, we got a little turned around, but were wandering in the right direction. It's still daylight, but we're walking down an empty sidewalk, and a big black dude steps out of the passenger side of his vehicle, with a bright orange scarf on, and silver lipstick. He probably was wearing something else weird, too, but I wasn't planning on taking a good look at him as we walked past. Unfortunately, about 5 steps later, we decide we're going the wrong way. Soooo, we go back by him. Now he's staring blankly at us, and then points at us. And as we walk by him as casually as we can allow ourselves to, he turns and keeps pointing. Finally, we're past him and walking slightly faster than normal speed, and we hear him say, "..I think I drunk some dirty water." About a block later, we look at each other, and I'm like "I think that was the weirdest thing I've ever heard," and Desirée just busts out laughing. And now it's our favorite story, but at the time ... eeeeh, not so great.
We went to Maggiano's for dinner that night, and decided to dine outside on their HEATED patio. (They were sure to accentuate this little tidbit of info anytime they talked about it.) The food was excellent, and Desirée was beautiful (and she matched me!). Afterwards, we had to find a way to get some cash, because neither of us had any, but we were in pay parking. First we decide to check the sign, and it says "FREE for first 2 hours." YESSSS. We have 20 minutes, so we jump in and go. I hand the attendant our card, and he says "$10." WHAT? Free was if you had your parking validated, and for some reason, Maggiano's was excluded from the list of places that could validate your parking. GAY. So I have to put the car in reverse and get BACK into the parking lot, and we go searching for validation. Thankfully, the guy in the local coffee shop was totally understanding of the gay parking lot procedure, and validated my parking without having to buy anything. Nice guy.
Monday we went to the LA County Museum of Art, and that was nice. Desirée covered this part well enough for the both of us. It was .. art. It was so amazing, but eventually you just can't stand it anymore of it, and you look around the corner and see rooms and rooms and rooms of it waiting for you. We ate a late late lunch at BK, and then as soon as we got back to the Millan's, they wouldn't hear of us not eating dinner with them. SOOOO STUFFED. Bob (Mr. Millan) kept trying to refill our wine glasses, but we couldn't handle anymore. He still left the bottle there with us. Good people.
We got a late start on Tuesday, but with a little faith and Desirée's expert driving, we made it to LAX with time to spare, and I didn't have to sit around doing nothing very long before my flight. Poor Desirée was feeling nauseous again that day, so she went home and slept after I left. I flew for a grand total of 3 hours, but thanks to differing time zones, ended up wasting an entire day in transit.
And, that's really about it. I've been reminiscing for so long now that I don't think my brain can come up with a witty ending. All in all, the trip was enjoyable, and unfortunately now I am overrun with practices and jobs. I mean, financially this is a step up, but I'm having to cancel going to my part time job for a week because I don't have a moment to breathe. Here's hoping I can pull through with these projects. Doing badly in public isn't good for the professional image. :) I'm out.
This was my first flight. Well, I think I remember once when I was like 2 ... but as you can tell, it's not all that memorable. I was a little nervous. The plane bounced a bit coming out of Dallas (it was a super foggy day, and pretty windy). I heard sounds that made me worry. When we were making our descent, the wings started bending downwards (man, I shouldn't have been on the wing). I had decided earlier that I wasn't going to start screaming until someone else did, too. Miraculously enough, I didn't have to scream, and I made it to LAX in one piece. Desirée picked me up a little after I arrived. It was amazing to see her again, death-flight or no.
The Millan's are extraordinary hosts. They had never met me before (the parents; I knew Ben and Stefan), but they treated me like an old friend. I had my pick of rooms to sleep in, and had my own keys. The fridge was mine for the raiding, although you never got very close to it, because Stella would already be fixing you a plate of something while you were just starting to think "hmm, I may be hungry." After leaving Desirée's place, I immediately took a wrong turn. Instead of calling her, though, I called a remixer friend from online and told him that he could get me back on track, AND we could meet up for a little bit. That was fun ... the guy was real nice. Desirée was a little nervous that I was out late meeting this guy who led me off the main road into what might have been a dark alley that he could kill me in and take my precious piano hands (and leave the rest of me behind). I think I might not have explained my situation to her very well when I called her and told her she could rest easy, cause it obviously didn't work.
So, somewhere between midnight-thirty when I crashed in the building out back of the Millan's place and 5am when I was jarred awake by a strange dream, I noticed that the fan and heater that I had running were now ... not. In fact, nothing was. So, I had to get up and run inside by the light of a flashlight to take a shower. Hmm, power on in here, that's good. Oh, of course not, the power to the bathroom only doesn't work. Yay for a shower by flashlight. So romantic.
Desirée and I went to the oral surgeon, and yadda yadda, she gets in and the receptionist tells me it will only be like 1 1/2 hours tops. Well, that keeps me pretty close by so I just sit at Denny's alone and think to myself "I never want to be this guy." Anyways, I head back a little early, and a couple minutes later, the nurse lets me back to see Desirée. They've got her on a padded bench with a strange white cloth over her. She's lying there totally still with her eyes closed, so I think maybe I'm a little early, but as soon as she hears me pull up a chair she's talking to me. She could have been a mummy: white sheet tight over her body, head raised on a pillow, and an ice pack sticking out from either cheek. She reached for my hand, but can't get to me because of the sheet, and finally wiggles her way out. She's literally wringing my hands the whole time and doesn't even realize it. She starts asking about the music, and where it's coming from, and about a minute later into the conversation says, "Who are you?" Then she started asking over and over if she was dying, and if I would pray for her, and then started crying. I had to fight back tears.
Here's a short list of other interesting things said during this loopy time for Desirée:
- "Where's my tongue? They cut out my tongue!"
- "Am I fat and ugly?" "NO, of course not." "Right now!?!" "..well, maybe just a little."
- "Am I drooling blood?"
- "You're a nice boy."
- "I can't see anything!" "Desirée, you have your eyes closed."
- "How did I get in here?" (At this point, I'm like .. ok, whatever. I ran out and asked the closest nurse, "Hey, random question. She wants to know how she got in there.") "They say that you walked in here and they helped you." "NU-UH!! I DID NOT!"
- "I'm a good girl!" (Yeah, she really did say that to the nurse.)
- "The doctor says you're my boyfriend." (That one made me laugh.)
- *touching her bottom lip thoughtfully* "What is this?"
So, the nurse gave me the lowdown on what to do for the next couple days, even though Desirée would eventually NOT heed these instructions. :) About 20 feet before pulling into her driveway, she did the frantic armtap, and I slammed on the brakes, she opened the door, and there went some gum blood all over the road. We sat around the majority of the day, except to get her prescriptions and some soft cold foods. THE YOGURT STORY INCOMING: Desirée hates this one, but she knows I love telling it, and she seems content to let me share it. The first time eating after the surgery was a small yogurt cup. She got a spoonful of it ready, and then put it up to her mouth, and HALF of it made it to her bottom lip. She couldn't even tell where her mouth was because it was still totally numb. I was going to help her, but she looked like she wanted to take care of it herself. She wiped her mouth, and tried to hide a look of shock when she saw how much yogurt DIDN'T make it inside of her. Still makes me smile.
Friday we went out for haircuts (she had setup the appointments weeks ago for this). I got what I like to call "organized chaos" on my head. The shampoo / head massage was worth the price. Desirée got a killer look and finally got beyond the post-partum depression of losing her teeth the day before. We went to lunch, and Desirée tried so hard to eat something more sustaining than a pudding substance, but eventually had to just nurse her soup. The waitress asked us if everything was ok, and Desirée told her that she had just gotten her teeth out, and the girl was like, "Oh, I'm so sorry! Yeah, I'm going to have to get mine out, too ... and heart surgery." Then she walked off with a smile, with us feeling quite a bit less depressed about our own pathetic little problems.
Desirée cooked for me Friday night, but was unfortunately still unable to really enjoy any food. Meals were taking forever, and I think it frustrated her. I hung out for a while, then she dropped me off at the Millan's, and went back home.
Saturday, Desirée came and picked me up in a stunning red dress that matched my new red tie she bought me. We ate a picnic lunch at Ambassador College, and walked around the grounds. Even after all the years that it had been degrading, it was still just amazing to see. The buildings and the landscape were fantastic. After that, we headed to church, and yes, I was mentioned quite a bit during the service. Everyone notices a piano player for some reason. We ate dinner with the Millan's that evening, and went to a duelling piano bar. It was pretty racy stuff that night, but the musicians were just amazing. They had two pianos, a bass, a regular electric, and drums, and pretty much everyone could go play any instrument. Guess I couldn't work there, being a lame piano-only guy. We also drank mixed drinks out of a bucket with straws. Classy.
Sunday was Venice Beach and Hollywood. Venice Beach was a big deal supposedly because there were a bunch of freaks out there, although Desirée assures me that there weren't as many freaks as usual out there that day. We walked up and down the boardwalk looking at shops, little sideshows, and ... freaks. Short list of things seen at VB:
- A man doing a show involving fire eating and balancing young girls sitting in folding chairs on his chin.
- A man on rollerblades playing an electric guitar down the boardwalk for tips (he must have had an electric pack or a battery somewhere on him.)
- Lots of random guys playing a guitar and singing their blues away.
- A guy with a couple turntables doing some scratching for cash like a lotto ticket. Ha, I'm witty.
- A young couple: him, with a kareoke system by his side, "oooh"ing along with a CD; her, standing close by in her ridiculous clothing just swaying and feeling the feng shui of his lyrical musings. I don't know WHO is giving them money.
- A black man in a thong (speedo? I didn't look long enough to know or care) rolling a metal ball along his arm. I GUESS this was entertainment.
We went to Hollywood from there. I cannot stress this enough. The place is SCUMMY. This is not someplace cool like you'd expect it to be. The only nice places are the high tourist places because they have security and ... well, normal people. We saw some shemale prostitutes on the street, and Desirée is convinced that later when we were walking behind a couple guys that one of them looked back and checked ME out. I don't have gaydar, so I couldn't tell. The stars on the sidewalk were pretty cool, and the Chinese Theater is definitely the highlight of the town. On our way back to our car, we got a little turned around, but were wandering in the right direction. It's still daylight, but we're walking down an empty sidewalk, and a big black dude steps out of the passenger side of his vehicle, with a bright orange scarf on, and silver lipstick. He probably was wearing something else weird, too, but I wasn't planning on taking a good look at him as we walked past. Unfortunately, about 5 steps later, we decide we're going the wrong way. Soooo, we go back by him. Now he's staring blankly at us, and then points at us. And as we walk by him as casually as we can allow ourselves to, he turns and keeps pointing. Finally, we're past him and walking slightly faster than normal speed, and we hear him say, "..I think I drunk some dirty water." About a block later, we look at each other, and I'm like "I think that was the weirdest thing I've ever heard," and Desirée just busts out laughing. And now it's our favorite story, but at the time ... eeeeh, not so great.
We went to Maggiano's for dinner that night, and decided to dine outside on their HEATED patio. (They were sure to accentuate this little tidbit of info anytime they talked about it.) The food was excellent, and Desirée was beautiful (and she matched me!). Afterwards, we had to find a way to get some cash, because neither of us had any, but we were in pay parking. First we decide to check the sign, and it says "FREE for first 2 hours." YESSSS. We have 20 minutes, so we jump in and go. I hand the attendant our card, and he says "$10." WHAT? Free was if you had your parking validated, and for some reason, Maggiano's was excluded from the list of places that could validate your parking. GAY. So I have to put the car in reverse and get BACK into the parking lot, and we go searching for validation. Thankfully, the guy in the local coffee shop was totally understanding of the gay parking lot procedure, and validated my parking without having to buy anything. Nice guy.
Monday we went to the LA County Museum of Art, and that was nice. Desirée covered this part well enough for the both of us. It was .. art. It was so amazing, but eventually you just can't stand it anymore of it, and you look around the corner and see rooms and rooms and rooms of it waiting for you. We ate a late late lunch at BK, and then as soon as we got back to the Millan's, they wouldn't hear of us not eating dinner with them. SOOOO STUFFED. Bob (Mr. Millan) kept trying to refill our wine glasses, but we couldn't handle anymore. He still left the bottle there with us. Good people.
We got a late start on Tuesday, but with a little faith and Desirée's expert driving, we made it to LAX with time to spare, and I didn't have to sit around doing nothing very long before my flight. Poor Desirée was feeling nauseous again that day, so she went home and slept after I left. I flew for a grand total of 3 hours, but thanks to differing time zones, ended up wasting an entire day in transit.
And, that's really about it. I've been reminiscing for so long now that I don't think my brain can come up with a witty ending. All in all, the trip was enjoyable, and unfortunately now I am overrun with practices and jobs. I mean, financially this is a step up, but I'm having to cancel going to my part time job for a week because I don't have a moment to breathe. Here's hoping I can pull through with these projects. Doing badly in public isn't good for the professional image. :) I'm out.
posted by Karl at 6:25 PM
5 Comments:
You forgot to mention the really cool keytar.
Ah yes, the Frantic Armtap. I saw that many a time in my undergrad days. lol
Great post.
You've never flow before?
Grosssssss...don't say that kind of stuff when I'm sick.
Speaking of men in thongs...
I just got through watching an episode of Mythbusters in which Adam got into a bathtub wearing only a speedo-type of swimsuit so that they could catch his farts. THAT was a disturbing sight...yet....quite a amusing for some reason.
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